Postdoctoral Fellow - Agricultural Water Management/Water Productivity

A water-secure world!

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-profit, scientific research organization focusing on the sustainable use of water and land resources in developing countries. Headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with regional offices and projects across Asia and Africa, IWMI employs around 300 staff. The Institute works in partnership with governments, research organizations, civil society and the private sector to improve water management to have a real impact on poverty reduction, food security and the environment.

Postdoctoral Fellow - Agricultural Water Management/Water Productivity

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

We are looking for a highly motivated individual to work with a multi-disciplinary team to develop innovative solutions for improved water and land productivity. The focus is to develop novel approaches in scalability of water balance information from plot to landscape scales in various time steps at project locations in Ethiopia, Lebanon, Mali and Jordan. The Postdoctoral Fellow (PDF) will work in smallholder irrigation and rain-fed farming systems to implement monitoring systems across scales (field-farm-watershed), using novel tools with the aim of (i) optimizing water use and inputs, and (ii) improving yields and water productivity. The monitoring systems developed will be linked to information technology (IT) systems to enable automated reporting.

We expect you to implement manual, farmer-managed and automated field-based monitoring systems to understand the influence of various agricultural water management practices on crop yield, irrigation performance measurement and crop water productivity across sites in Ethiopia, Lebanon, Mali and Jordan. Work tasks will span the research for development activities, identify research objectives, and carry out the experimental and methodological approaches appropriate for the context; assist in developing approaches to link field-based monitoring systems to farm-level remote sensing datasets and modelling; organize and/or contribute to workshops and capacity building activities; and prepare project reports and publish the results of the research in international journals.

Candidates with a PhD in agricultural water management, irrigation engineering, water resources management, hydrology or a related field, a background and understanding of water, land and soil management in rain-fed and irrigated agricultural systems, and a sound understanding of the concepts of irrigation efficiency and crop water productivity are encouraged to apply.

To apply, visit www.iwmi.org/jobs. Applications must be submitted by 24:00 hours (Indian Standard Time) on August 5, 2017.

This is an internationally recruited position with a competitive salary and benefits package, which includes a housing allowance, transport, education, shipping assistance, annual home leave and health insurance package. Postdoctoral scientists are appointed on fixed two-year contracts.

IWMI is an equal opportunity employer and emphasizes the importance of regional and gender diversity in identifying candidates for this position and its staff more generally.